Discussions Official Disney/EU discussion thread.

The novelizations are pretty much the movies with very minor differences. I'd say the novelizations are canon. To me the movie novelizations are more canon than the movies are anyway. They always leave good parts out of every movie that is based on a book and pick and choose what they want to put on screen.

 

Well, I saw an official statement saying the novelizations were canon, so...

 

As long as they align with the movies.

 

Well they do, so that's why they said that.

 

Yeah, the novels are basically the same as the movies.

In some cases better than the movies (hello ROTS novel), but the differences are minor enough there wouldn't be a reason to decanonize them...even in the new system I would think.

 

Ah,the novelizations are great.I've enjoyed them as much as the movies.More detail and action.Will these be considered non-canon? I consider them apart of my own personal canon.Not sure how y'all see them I would like to read your opinions.

 

There is one thing in the novelizations that I consider canon and that's the words, "The Empire was dead. Long live the alliance." It fits statements from both Kasdan and GL and I like the idea.

 

They are indeed considered canon. At least that's what Wookiepedia says

 

According to the twitter statements, they are canon except where they aren't. Which isn't helpful.

 

The generous approach would be "every scene that doesn't directly contradict the movie (I.E isn't a movie scene with very different dialogue) is canon."

The less generous approach would be "every scene that's not specifically a movie scene, is non-canon".

We may have to wait and see.

 

I haven't read all the movie novelizations, but, from the ones that I read, I don't see any way they can contradict anything.
But there is, and I just missed it

 

RotS has copious references to the pre-TCW Clone Wars Multimedia project.
The political structure of the empire in ANH is messed up by Palpatine actually being in charge. Also, ducks.
ESB has Blue Yoda and blue lightsabers.
I haven't read the RotJ one yet, but the NPR scripts novelization is heavily EU-incorporating (Mara Jade!).
I gave up on the AotC novelization, so I don't know about that one.
TPM has a few new scenes, as do most of the books, and many have different lines of dialogue than the movie.
There are certainly some things in them that aren't canon (blue Yoda!) and some things that Disney might not want canon as well.

The Junior Novelizations, however, are probably fine. They suffer from being boring and fairly simple, but line up well with the films, from what I've read. The RotS junior novelization was, unfortunately, my first exposure to RotS, as both the film and the actual novel are far better.

 

To me, it sounds like everything in the books that isn't in the movie is non-canon. So, since I don't want to read them, I'll go by that .

 

If you don't want to, that's fine, but the ROTS and ESB are my favourites and provide such amazing details that the movies do not have.

I suggest you trying them out first, see if you like them and then decide

 

And even the TPM and AOTC ones have some interesting new scenes.

 

At the end of the day what really matters is that we love Star Wars for our own reasons, and not because of weather or not a specific book/story/character we love is considered canon or not. As fans, all we can do is go with the flow or find a new genre to become beholden too. I personally loved Star Wars long before I knew anything about the EU, and I'll continue loving Star Wars long after this change in the EU. My only wish is that future authors make good use of the existing LU, because so many people put their time and love of story-telling into those stories.

 

Disney is definitely good for the franchise in many ways. The Disney Store in our mall held an event for May the 4th Be With You yesterday. There was a huge crowd of "Younglings" there to particpate in Jedi Training. These kids mostly under the age of 7 knew their SW. They had trivia questions and even though I am sure their parents taught them the answers it's exciting to see a new generation of fans. Many of them came in costume and they are going to get their own trilogy of movies.

 

I'm still thinking that it'll just be the generous approach, like the way it was. Example: When a certain Clone Wars episode made the Medstar Duology Non-Canon because the Clone Wars was on a "higher tier" of canon, and that episode conflicted with events in those books.

 

And that's what is baffling to me. If the good people at LFL are going to go ahead and say "some parts of the novelizations are canon, some parts aren't," then what about this new 'one true canon' system is different from what we had before? If they are going to pick and choose from the novelizations, then they should pick and choose from the rest of the EU, too, instead of just wiping out the whole thing!

 

I appreciate that they don't want to spoil plot details for Episode 7 that will likely be important to how much and where the EU gets changed or overwritten. However you feel about JJ, he tends to get overly excited about holding onto mysteries (He's Khan, but he's not, but - surprise - he is, but he's nothing like him). It feels like their frustratingly vague and universal statements have created a huge uncertainty among EU fans, and a unseemly proclamations of "suck it, nerds" from people who never read or liked the EU.
I think signs are good that much of the EU will be preserved - the rumored Mara Jade film, actors seeming to be Jacen, Jaina and Ben in Ep. 7, and the fact that they're using John Jackson Miller and other respected authors to build new continuity.

If they pull it off, having the ability to forget poor past choices going forward and re-adapt outdated stories for new audiences with a clear guiding vision from the Story Group could be GREAT for the future of our beloved franchise. I just hope they realize they don't have to completely destroy the old to make way for the new.

Example: If they ever do a Rogue Squadron TV show (my dream), I don't expect they'll keep the dialogue or plots from the books even slightly intact (it won't really be an adaption); but that doesn't mean it shouldn't have the characters we know cast for new adventures that have been written specifically for the new format.
Wedge, Hobbie, Janson and Tycho of course - Corran, Mirax, Ooryl, etc. for pre-ST - Myri, Syal and others for post-ST. There's such a wealth of existing characters, setting details, and individual plot points to be lifted that it would be a huge shame to ignore them.

 

I just stumbled on the April article and accompanying video, and was appalled.

It speaks to the Expanded Universe, and how they've created a department to maintain "new" canon going forward. At the same time, saying the "old" canon isn't entirely tossed, and the young ####'s in the accompanying video who (oxymoron) talk about going forward and "holding trust" on canon... except it's new canon at the same time they're talking about destroying canon.

Snippet:

Young **tz says, "we'll be able to bring a unified vision in a way that we've never done before."

Hello, but the Expanded Universe was unified, cohesive, unprecedented in its cohesiveness in all of media and literature, carefully crafted and intentionally so - so tight in fact that one book picked up where the last left off, and referred to past events in a tightly knit universe. It was already unified, and is valued. No reboots necessary or appreciated.

"A sacred trust," says the young rebooter ... as they break trust on the millennia of cohesive canon already in place. How ironic she mentions a sacred trust as they break it.

Bah, phooey, and a dozen other expletives.

 

Indeed, other than the disastrous post-NJO that didn't deserve to be preserved in the first place, the EU has so much to offer. I guess TCW and how it treated the multimedia project showed the way things are going to work moving forward, only "This time we really mean it, everything is going to be consistent." As if it wasn't consistent before, beyond the issues that are bound to crop up in any multimedia franchise were the creator of the original work can't leave well enough alone. I guess there is some unwritten law of the universe that films and television can't behold itself to any other form of media.

 

I agree to a point, but let's be real...the EU had quite few glaring missteps. It was largely unified but there still existed a few titles with redundancies and inconsistencies. This line of thinking has led me to be excited for what's to come. My hope is that they give us as ROBUST a universe moving forward. I like the idea of streamlining the universe outside of the movies. To me this means the future of Star Wars is truly, wide open.

 

Glaring missteps? How so? I read every book in the Luke era cover to cover, they line my bookshelves in bulk. They were contiguous and cohesive to an unprecedented and thorough degree. It was clear that this was a deliberate effort with amazing levels of cooperation and collaboration, respect for the canon by authors and edit staff. Books a decade down the road, written many years later, would refer to historic events and hold canon.

I don't see how anyone could deliver or expect better than the body of work that was delivered through so many books I'd have to lose count if I tried to go move stacks.

 

You're not wrong, per say. In my opinion it wasn't until the NJO series that a lot of the loose ends in the EU were "retconed" It's truly amazing, the level of collaboration and effort put into it over the years, but its not without its share of inconsistencies. Heck even the films have their share of misteps. The move by Disney to start fresh is a calculated risk. There are lots of people destined to be new fans once the new movies, tv series, books and comics begin to drop. This new precise approach will benefit us in the long run

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